Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin is opposing this Bill, which we regard as unjust and unnecessary. Its intent is to provide another form of collecting money from the taxpayer for the Government through stealth taxes. It is not an attempt to improve the source and supply of water to homes, nor does it tackle the pipeline structure problem or set out how problems such as flooding may be dealt with.

I find it particularly unnerving that this legislation intends to establish Irish Water as a subsidiary of Bord Gáis. This Government is hell-bent on privatising State assets. The valuable infrastructure in which the State has invested and should continue to invest is at risk of being sold off. It is unnerving that Bord Gáis, and subsequently Irish Water, could be sold off. Water, being the most valuable natural resource to which any State, nation or civilisation could have access, is at risk. This cannot be allowed to happen.

The State has had a poor record in the sale of its natural resources. We have given away our oil and gas for practically nothing. The Fianna Fáil Government sold off Telecom Éireann, which resulted in Ireland having the most backward telecommunications service in the European Union. To understand my point, we have only to look across the Irish Sea to Britain where private companies are still introducing water meters 20 years after water meters were first introduced.

It is disturbing that Mr. John Mullins, the project chief executive, was unable to tell the Joint Committee on the Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht the full cost of the installation of the meters. We are basically being asked to hand over a blank cheque to Bord Gáis. If we have learned anything from the past week, and from the last Government, it is that handing over a blank cheque will lead to disaster down the line.

When the Minister, Deputy Phil Hogan, was introducing his infamous household charge, he stated it amounted to less than €2 per week. In this regard, let me refer to a real man, whose real name I will not use but whom I will call Paddy. He is a real person living in the real economy. He is in his mid-40s, single and lives alone in a rural council house. He is recovering from drink and drug addiction. He has been drug, cigarette and alcohol free for over ten years. He will not even take prescribed medication now as he feels the antipsychotic drugs he had been taking nearly destroyed him. He does not visit a general practitioner but obtains great relief and support from Tai Chi and acupuncture. In fairness to the HSE, it supports him in getting acupuncture. He has special dietary and exceptional heating needs.

Paddy is on €188 per week. Without the help of the local Society of St. Vincent de Paul, he would not be able to exist on this sum. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul has stated that, because of the number of people seeking help from it, it cannot afford to maintain the existing level of support. Paddy calculates that the increase in fuel costs, the reduction in the telephone and electricity allowances, rent increases due to the household charge or family home tax, water services charges and fuel and tax increases for his Honda 90 will cost him an additional €21.20 per week. Where now is the €2 per week about which the Minister spoke? If the State cannot afford to pay the cost of treating and supplying water, where does the Minister suggest that Paddy should get the additional money from?

According to a major report carried out by the British Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, a household that spends over 3% of income on water charges is at risk of water poverty. This Bill does nothing to protect low-income families who could be at risk from water poverty.

There is a terrible irony to this Bill. Capital investment in water was cut from almost €435 million in 2011 to €331 million in 2012. That is a cut of €100 million, or almost 25%. It is a cut of nearly €200 million on the 2010 allocation, with more cuts planned until the budget is reduced to €266 million. Irish people must pay for water so that the Government can continue to pay off reckless speculators, financial gamblers and bankers.

I have a straight question to which I would like a straight "Yes" or "No" answer: when the water charge and family home tax income starts to stream in, will the rates and water charges currently being paid by businesses and farmers be reduced to reflect the additional revenue that will accrue on foot of this Bill and the family home tax legislation?

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